Efficacy of anthranilic insecticide E2Y45 20 SC (Chlorantraniliprole) against Plutella xylostella L. in cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. capitata

Experiments were conducted at farmer’s cabbage fields to evaluate the bioefficacy of anthranilic insecticide i.e. E2Y45 20 SC (Chlorantraniliprole) having novel mode of action against the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella L. E2Y45 20 SC was applied @ 25.0, 37.5 and 50.0 ml/ha and was compared with Padan 50 SP (cartap hydrochloride) @ 500 g/ha and the untreated control. Lowest mean larval population after two sprays was recorded in higher dose of E2Y 45 20 SC i.e. @ 50.0 ml/ha (0.08 larvae/plant) at 7 days after treatment followed by medium and lower dose of E2Y 45 20 SC i.e. @ 37.5ml/ha (0.10 larvae/plant) and 25.0 ml/ha (0.33 larvae/plant). The larval population in these treatments was significantly lower than standard check, Padan 50 SP (2.56 larvae/plant), and untreated control (9.73 larvae/plant). The highest marketable yield (262.89 q/ha) was recorded in E2Y 45 20 SC @ 50.0 ml/ha which was significantly higher than Padan 50 SP (239.65 q/ha). Lowest yields were recorded in untreated control (106.00 q/ha). Conclusively, medium (37.5 ml/ha) and higher (50.0 ml/ha) dose of E2Y 45 20 SC (chlorantraniliprole) significantly reduced the larval population of P. xylostella and increased the cabbage yield

Critical success factors for implementation of supply chain management in Indian small and medium enterprises and their impact on performance

AbstractGlobalization of the economy, e-business, and introduction of new technologies pose new challenges to all organizations especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this scenario, successful implementation of supply chain management (SCM) can give SMEs an edge over their competitors. However, SMEs in India and other developing countries face problems in SCM implementation due to lack of resources and direction. Against this backdrop, this paper identified 13 critical success factors (CSFs) for implementation of SCM in SMEs and studied their impact on performance of Indian SMEs. Top management commitment, long–term vision, focus on core strengths, devoted resources for supply chain, and development of effective SCM strategy emerged as the most pertinent CSFs. To measure improvement in performance, the authors considered different measures related to customer service and satisfaction, innovation and growth, financial performance, and internal business. Results are analysed by testing research propositions using standard statistical tools

A Novel Role of Lactosylceramide in the Regulation of Lipopolysaccharide/Interferon-γ-Mediated Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Expression: Implications for Neuroinflammatory Diseases

In the present study a possible role of glycosphingolipids (GSLs) in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene expression and nitric oxide (NO) production after spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats has been established. In primary rat astrocytes lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) treatment increased the intracellular levels of lactosylceramide (LacCer) and induced iNOS gene expression. D-Threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol·HCI (PDMP), a glucosylceramide synthase and LacCer synthase (galactosyltransferase, GalT-2) inhibitor, inhibited LPS/IFN-γ induced iNOS expression, which was reversed by exogenously supplied LacCer, but not by other glycosphingolipids. LPS/IFN-γ caused a rapid increase in the activity of GalT-2 and synthesis of LacCer. Silencing of GalT-2 gene with the use of antisense oligonucleotides resulted in decreased LPS/IFN-γ-induced iNOS, TNF-α, and IL-1β gene expression. The PDMP-mediated reduction in LacCer production and inhibition of iNOS expression correlated with decreased Ras and ERK1/2 activation along with decreased IκB phosphorylation, NF-κB DNA binding activity, and NF-κB-luciferase reporter activity. LacCer-mediated Ras activation was redox-mediated and was attenuated by antioxidants N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC). In vivo administration of PDMP after SCI resulted in improved functional outcome (Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan score); inhibition of iNOS, TNF-α, and IL-1β expression; decreased neuronal apoptosis; and decreased tissue necrosis and demyelination. The in vivo studies supported the conclusions drawn from cell culture studies and provided evidence for the possible role of GalT-2 and LacCer in SCI-induced inflammation and pathology. To our knowledge this is the first report of a role of LacCer in iNOS expression and the advantage of GSL depletion in attenuating post-SCI inflammation to improve the outcome of SCI

Notch mRNA Expression in Drosophila Embryos Is Negatively Regulated at the Level of mRNA 3′ Processing

Notch receptor regulates differentiation of almost all tissues and organs during animal development. Many mechanisms function at the protein level to finely regulate Notch activity. Here we provide evidence for Notch regulation at an earlier step - mRNA 3′ processing. Processing at the Notch consensus polyadenylation site appears by default to be suppressed in Drosophila embryos. Interference with this suppression, by a mutation, results in increased levels of polyadenylated Notch mRNA, excess Notch signaling, and severe developmental defects. We propose that Notch mRNA 3′ processing is negatively regulated to limit the production of Notch protein and render it a controlling factor in the generation of Notch signaling

ALLELOPATHIC IMPACT OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF TAGETES MINUTA ON COMMON AGRICULTURAL AND WASTELAND WEEDS

ABSTRACTObjective: Tagetes minuta (Family Asteraceae) is an aromatic plant possessing volatile essential oil.  Its oil finds extensive use in flavor and perfume industry. T. minuta oil also possess medicinal and insecticidal properties as antiheminthic, nematicidal, bactericidal, antiviral, fngicidal and insecticidal. The plant has been explored for herbicidal potential in very few reports. The aim of present study is to find out its allelopathic potential against common wasteland and agricultural weeds.Material & Methods: Various agricultural and wasteland weeds were selected for laboratory growth studies. Oil was applied in solution form using an emulsifier.Results: Growth of all test weeds was inhibited by T. minuta oil; however, effect was maximum in Amaranthus tricolor with complete inhibition at 1µl/ml and E. cruss-galli was least affected with complete inhibition at 5µl/ml concentration of T. minuta oil.Conclusion: T. minuta oil offers great potential for effective weed management in agricultural as well as wasteland areas. Keyowrds: Tagetes minuta, essential oil, allelopathy, solution form, wasteland, agricultural, weed

Physical mapping of wheat and rye expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats on wheat chromosomes

Six hundred and seventy two loci belonging to 275 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats [EST-SSRs, including 93 wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and 182 rye (Secale cereale L.) EST-SSRs] were physically mapped on 21 wheat chromosomes. The mapping involved two approaches, the wet-lab approach involving use of deletion stocks and the in silico approach involving matching with ESTs that were previously mapped. The number of loci per EST-SSR mapped using the in silico approach was almost double the number of loci mapped using the wet-lab approach (using deletion stocks). The distribution of loci on the three subgenomes, on the seven homoeologous groups and on the 21 individual chromosomes was nonrandom (P « 0.01). Long arms had disproportionately (relative to the difference in DNA content) higher number of loci, with more loci mapped to the distal regions of chromosome arms. A fairly high proportion of EST-SSRs had multiple loci, which were largely (81%) homoeoloci. Rye EST-SSRs showed a high level of transferability (≈77%) to the wheat genome. Putative functions were assigned to 216 SSR-containing ESTs through homology searches against the protein database. As many as 104 SSR-containing ESTs (a subset of the above ESTs) were also mapped to the 12 rice chromosomes, which corresponded with the known homology between wheat and rice chromosomes. These physical maps of EST-SSRs should prove useful for comparative genomics, gene tagging, fine mapping, and cloning of genes and QTLs. Dna-based molecular markers, particularly SSRs, have been developed and mapped on chromosomes in a variety of crop plants. In bread wheat, genetic and physical mapping of SSRs has been an ongoing exercise, and, to date, ≈2450 SSRs (1 SSR 1.63 cM-1) have been genetically mapped (for details see Torada et al., 2006) and ≈1320 SSRs (62 SSRs chromosome-1) have been physically mapped (for details see Goyal et al., 2005). With a genome size of ≈16 000 Mbp, it is evident that despite concerted efforts, the density of mapped SSRs in bread wheat remains relatively low and continued efforts are needed to increase the density of these SSRs on available genetic and physical maps. In recent years, emphasis has also shifted from genomic SSRs to EST-SSRs due to the availability of very large databases of ESTs from all of the cereals including bread wheat. Consequently, the number of EST-SSRs in cereals now includes 43 598 from bread wheat (Peng and Lapitan, 2005), 16 917 from rice and 184 from rye (La Rota et al., 2005; Hackauf and Wehling, 2002). The genetic mapping of these EST-SSRs is difficult due to a low level of polymorphism, as a result of their conserved nature. Physical mapping of these EST-SSRs in wheat is equally difficult due to the occurrence of homoeoloci exhibiting no polymorphism. This has discouraged wheat researchers from undertaking a large-scale project to genetically or physically map wheat EST-SSRs although genetic mapping of 325 EST-SSRs (Gao et al., 2004; Nicot et al., 2004; Yu et al., 2004) and physical mapping of 305 EST-SSRs was recently undertaken (Yu et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005; Peng and Lapitan, 2005). We previously reported genetic mapping of 58 and physical mapping of 270 genomic SSRs (Gupta et al., 2002; Goyal et al., 2005). The present study is an extension of our earlier studies on physical mapping of SSRs and involved both wet-lab and in silico approaches, leading to the successful mapping of as many as 672 loci. The in silico approach allowed mapping of twice the number of loci (per EST-SSR) mapped using wet-lab analysis

Thermal characteristics of a classical solar telescope primary mirror

We present a detailed thermal and structural analysis of a 2m class solar telescope mirror which is subjected to a varying heat load at an observatory site. A 3-dimensional heat transfer model of the mirror takes into account the heating caused by a smooth and gradual increase of the solar flux during the day-time observations and cooling resulting from the exponentially decaying ambient temperature at night. The thermal and structural response of two competing materials for optical telescopes, namely Silicon Carbide -best known for excellent heat conductivity and Zerodur -preferred for its extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion, is investigated in detail. The insight gained from these simulations will provide a valuable input for devising an efficient and stable thermal control system for the primary mirror.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in New Astronom

Effect of nitrogen fertilizer on different attributes of gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorous L.) cv. American Beauty

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on growth, flowering and vase life of gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorous L.) cv. American Beauty at the farm of the Department of Horticulture, C.C.R (P.G.) College, Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh). The treatments comprised of four levels of nitrogen (0, 40, 60, 80 kg/acre) in a randomized complete block design with factorial concept and replicated four times. The results revealed that minimum days taken for spike initiation (86.89 days), days taken for first flowering (99.37 days) were observed under control treatment N0 whereas, maximum plant height (49.21cm), spike length (127.17 cm), rachis length (61.31 cm), number of florets per spike (18.00) and vase life (11.73 days) was found with N2 (60 kg/acre Nitrogen). The result shows that using 60 kg/acre nitrogen can improve the growth and yield of gladiolus cv. American Beauty like vegetative, flowering and vase life attributes. Hence, this optimum nitrogen level can be recommended for the commercial cultivation of gladiolus

Chemical composition and inhibitory activity of essential oil from decaying leaves of Eucalyptus citriodora

A study was undertaken to explore the content and composition of volatile oil from decaying leaves of lemon-scented eucalypt (Eucalyptus citriodora Hook.) not analyzed earlier. GC and GC-MS analysis of the oil (yield 0.6%) revealed the monoterpenoid nature with citronellal (52.2%), citronellol (12.3%) and isoisopulegol (11.9%) as the major constituents. Overall, 17 components were identified that accounted for over 94% of the decaying leaf oil. Surprisingly, the decaying leaf oil contained nearly 1.8% of trans-rose oxide, which is generally absent in eucalypt essential oil. Decaying leaf oil and its major 2 components (citronellal and citronellol) inhibited the germination and root elongation of two weeds Ð Cassia occidentalis (broad-leaved) and Echinochloa crus-galli (grassy weed). Based on the dose-response studies, I 50 values were determined for decaying leaf oil and the effect was more on germination only of broad-leaved weed (C. occidentalis), whereas that of citronellal and citronellol were on germination as well as root length of E. crus-galli (grassy weed). Based on I 50 values it was observed that citronellal was more phytotoxic and germination inhibiting in nature, whereas citronellol was a more potent root inhibitor, thereby indicating a possible different mode of action. The study concludes that decaying leaf oil hold a good commercial value for exploitation as weed management agent